At least 48 killed, dozens wounded in attacks in Iraq

July 11, 2005|By Aamer Madhani Chicago Tribune

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- At least 48 people were killed and dozens wounded Sunday as militants launched a series of suicide attacks targeting Iraqi security forces, U.S. troops and civilians throughout the country.

Also, the U.S. military announced Sunday that it released an Iranian-American filmmaker who was detained for nearly two months without being charged.

Cyrus Kar, an Iranian-born U.S. citizen from Los Angeles and a former U.S. Navy sailor, was detained by the Iraqi army near Balad on May 17 along with an Iranian cameraman and a taxi driver. During a search of the taxi they were traveling in, Iraqi soldiers found 35 washing-machine timers, commonly used for detonating roadside bombs, according to the U.S. military.

The FBI and coalition forces investigated Kar's case and determined Kar is not an enemy combatant, the military said. The Iranian cameraman was also released, but the U.S. military continues to hold the taxi driver.

Until Sunday, July had been free of attacks resulting in mass casualties.

The most deadly attack Sunday took place at the military-recruitment center in Baghdad when a man with an explosives-laden vest strapped to his body blew himself up among a crowd of recruits waiting to be allowed into the compound. The attack killed 25 and wounded 47, according to hospital officials.

After the attack, a young man waiting to sign up as a soldier said he cheated death by minutes.

Wisam Rahim Khalaf said he was anxious about the long lines at the recruitment center that have proved to be easy targets for suicide bombers. The recruitment center at Muthana Airfield has been hit by similar attacks several times.

By luck, Khalaf, 20, said he squeezed toward the front of the line and was among the first allowed inside. A friend from Karbala he traveled with wasn't so lucky, Khalaf said.

A Shiite mother and seven of her children were found shot dead in their beds Sunday in Baghdad. One boy survived, police said. The distraught father, who was not at home at the time, blamed the killings on sectarian hatred, The Associated Press reported.

In an assault at the Syrian border, suicide attackers detonated two vehicles rigged as car bombs near a border crossing and killed seven customs officers.

In Mosul, a suicide car bomber slammed his vehicle into a convoy carrying a high-ranking police officer, Iraqi officials said. Four police officers were killed, and three were wounded.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, four civilians were killed and 15 were wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded on a highway near a hospital, officials said.